Citing free speech issues, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk said he would not block Russian Internet sites even after jumping into action to provide Ukrainians with his Starlink satellite Internet service when Russia moved to knock out the country’s web access.
Late on Friday night, Musk noted that his Internet service is a “free speech absolutist” and won’t block anyone’s access to any site except “at gunpoint.”
Starlink has been told by some governments (not Ukraine) to block Russian news sources. We will not do so unless at gunpoint.
Sorry to be a free speech absolutist.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2022
And when attacked by a Twitter user because Russian news sources are “propaganda,” Musk replied, “All news sources are partially propaganda, some more than others.”
All news sources are partially propaganda, some more than others
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2022
Musk also noted that Starlink was forced to perform some workarounds to overcome government “signal jamming,” but he did not publicly identify just who was trying to jam his signal.
We can all chose sides in the Russia/Ukraine conflict, for sure, but blocking signals and shutting down the flow of information is wrong.
Period.
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Tags: Elon Musk internet Russia Ukraine
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